The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

Cover Stories

Getting to Know the Junior League of Northern Westchester

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF JLNW

 Helping the Local Community for 65 Years

This year marks the 65th anniversary of that venerable, but hardly hidebound, local institution: the Junior League of Northern Westchester (JLNW).

Way back in 1971, the organization helped establish the Mount Kisco Child Care Center. In the ‘80’s and ‘90’s, the group’s focus was on domestic violence and in the early 2000’s, hunger and childhood obesity; the JLNW partnered for a time with the Mount Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry too. Now, there’s a focus on human trafficking and the safety of girls and women, as well as raising children in a digital age – and the group also runs an annual Holiday Sharing Drive.

“The Junior League is a community service organization that looks to identify critical needs in our community and develops unique ways to find solutions,” Clara Sharp, president elect of the Junior League of Northern Westchester, said.

To combat human trafficking–specifically the commercial sexual exploitation of children–the league has had a connection for the past several years with The Gateways Program, which is part of the JCCA Cottage Schools in Pleasantville.

Last month the group presented a well-attended program called Join the Conversation: Protecting Children in a Hyper Digital Age at the Bedford Playhouse. Liz Repking, the founder of Cyber Safety Consulting spoke. Topics discussed included sexting, gaming safety, restrictions and settings, and popular apps to use safely.

The Holiday Sharing Drive, started in 1980, is a favorite initiative of Sharp’s. “It’s really, truly a heart-warming experience,” she said. About ten social service agencies help

the league by identifying around 200 families who could use help at holiday time. Then, all members of each family including the adults write a list of what they need and/or desire to receive. “We match these families with people in the community,” Sharp said. Then, the gifts are purchased, readied and are packaged in bins and gathered in the gym of the Boys & Girls Club of Northern Westchester for distribution.

Armonk resident Trina Fontaine is also enthusiastic about the Holiday Sharing Drive. “The thing that got me hooked in the beginning was that (the junior league) had a number of initiatives going with other non-profits,” she said, adding that her church now adopts four families during the drive. But the trafficking of children for commercial sexual exploitation is the cause that’s “near and dear” to her heart, she said. “It really disgusts me and it shouldn’t happen here” in Westchester.

These ideas, Sharp said, come from both members and groups with which the Junior League has formed partnerships, like Northern Westchester Hospital. “It’s a two-pronged approach,” she said. “It’s not so much a formal process, but it’s something that evolves over time.”

Often, after they take off, Junior League projects wind up in the hands of others.

“We have a strong history of introducing programming that can be released back into the community,” Sharp said. “After a certain number of years, it becomes self-sustaining and that’s truly what we consider a success story.” For example, Hope’s Door, formerly known as the Northern Westchester Shelter, was started by the Junior League and is now completely independent.

“To be in the junior league is to be in a group of women who share your desire to make a difference in your community,” Sharp said. A popular misconception is that the junior league is a group of women who don’t work outside the home. Sharp works full-time as a fundraiser for a medical school, and said she is by no means the only member who has a career. “It’s women of all demographics.”

Emily Hunt, president of the JLNW, stated, “As a mother of daughters, I am especially proud of all the work we have done and continue to do to advance women and girls in our community, to ensure their safety and security and provide them, as adults, an outlet to give back to the community.”

Sharp joined in 2013, when she moved to Chappaqua, at the suggestion of her mother-in-law, a longtime member and past president herself. She said it was “a nice way to meet like-minded women,” Sharp said.

Joining the Junior League is easy, Sharp said: All you have to do is contact the group and say you want to join. In the past, joining was a more formal process and each new member needed a sponsor.

While the group prefers to admit new members twice a year so the women coming in have a greater chance to get to know other new members, really, Sharp said, new members can join any time. “As the times have changed, so have our policies and procedures,” Sharp said. “If you want to make a difference, we want you to join.”

 

Women from Chappaqua, Armonk, Pleasantville, Bedford, Mount Kisco, Pound Ridge, Briarcliff and more are members, meeting once a month, every third Tuesday, in order to move forward on projects and initiatives to improve the community.

 

The All-Inclusive Quakers!

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The Award-Winning Wrestling Team with Compassion

Competing in wrestling meets across the region, the composition of Horace Greeley’s team is like no other.

For the last four years, the Greeley wrestling team has been inclusive where the Quakers have students with special needs practicing and competing with the team. The three students this year aren’t just managers simply helping out, but athletes that put the same work and dedication into their craft just like every other wrestler on the team. Their addition has been both incredibly rare among local wrestling circles and undeniably beneficial.

“I think it changed the culture of our team in a positive way,” head coach Mike DeBellis said. “It seemed like the kids had more compassion for each other and tried to help each other more.” DeBellis has been coaching wrestling in the district for the past 16 years and currently teaches Introduction to Engineering, Robotics and Technology, and Design Integration classes at Greeley. He was this year’s recipient of the Ed Habermann Award from the Horace Greeley Scholarship Fund’s annual gala last month for being an exemplary role model for students in the district.

Awards Abound for the Quakers

While more compassion seems to be counterintuitive in a sport where a moment of mercy could spell disaster, the results for Greeley can’t be questioned. The past two seasons, senior Nicholas Ng, junior Ho Jin Lee, and sophomore Brady McCarthy, who all are special needs students, have been part of a team that has finished in the top ten both years in all of New York State.

Captain and senior Aaron Wolk was crowned state champion for his weight class at 172 pounds. He is the third Greeley wrestler to win the state championship. Previous state championship titles by a Greeley wrestler were won in 1978 and 1995. Wolk will continue wrestling next year at Brown University. Captain and senior Matt Schreiber took fifth overall for his weight class and captain and sophomore Isabella Garcia finished second in the New York girls state championship this year.

Lee, who has Down syndrome, joined the team four years ago. McCarthy, who also has Down syndrome and Ng, who is autistic, both joined the team two years ago. The three students are able to participate because assistant coach Anthony Tortora is certified to instruct students with disabilities. (He works as a physical education teacher in the Bronx with special needs students.)

The three boys are at practice daily, going through the same grind as everyone else and occasionally compete at meets in exhibitions matches against grapplers from other schools. All three boys are also certified to wrestle.

Brady’s father, Kevin, said wrestling has given Brady a boost in confidence and allowed him to meet more classmates he wouldn’t normally get to know. When Brady performed in a school play this year, many of his teammates attended the show.

Physically, it’s been great for him, and allowed him to be part of something bigger than himself. While Brady has played other sports, a certain temperament is needed to wrestle.

“He likes competing,” Kevin said of his son. “It made him a more complete person.”

DeBellis has made it clear anyone that wants to join the team is more than welcome. DeBellis has been known to recruit students in the hallway to join the team.

“Wrestling is a unique sport in that when you do it, you’re a wrestler for the rest of your life,” DeBellis said. “No matter what happens, you’re a wrestler and it’s a totally different sport than any other sport out there.”

“Wrestling really is the only sport where it is all-inclusive,” he added.

Trio Serves as Role Models for the Team

Tortora said the inclusion of McCarthy, Lee and Ng in the program lights up the day for every other wrestler in the room.

McCarthy has even become known for his pep talks at meets and being the most passionate person cheering for teammates. He’ll sit right next to the coaches while a teammate is on the mat and repeatedly tell him, “You can do it, you can do it.” His father encourages his son to, “be there, be vocal.”

And it certainty doesn’t go unnoticed. His teammates love watching him wrestle because there’s no denying how passionate he is. When Brady gets the opportunity to shine, he puts all his effort into it.

Schreiber said he’s learned to be more patient and pay attention to every minute aspect during practice. Wrestling can be a very detailed oriented sport, he noted, which requires his three disabled teammates to focus intensely. Garcia added while wrestling can be incredibly arduous, anyone with the right mindset and desire, like McCarthy, Lee and Ng, can participate. And Wolk said he’s learned to never give up. While it might take his three disabled teammates more time to grasp a new wrestling move, their attitude is only positive and optimistic.

There are no excuses for another wrestler who’s been given the gift of able body and mind to get frustrated or complain when there are three teammates with disabilities who refuse to settle. “They always have so much energy at every practice and it is great to see,” Wolk said. “It shows the rest of the team, don’t give up.”

“If It’s Not One Thing…”

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(L-R): Don Rosenstein, MD and Justin Yopp, PhD Authors of The Group
PHOTO COURTESY of UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center

How Programming at Gilda’s Club Helps Those Affected By Cancer

Gilda Radner, and her much-beloved Saturday Night Live comedic characters such as Roseanne Roseannadanna, kept audiences in stitches from the mid-1970s through the actress’s untimely death from ovarian cancer in 1989. Laughter is a gift, and Radner gave most generously. It is in that spirit of giving, and to honor her personal wish that information about her illness be shared to help others fighting cancer, that her husband, Gene Wilder, helped establish Gilda’s Club.

Gilda’s Club is a national network of 22 “clubhouses” dedicated to helping all people living with cancer– patients, their families and friends–free of any financial charges, ongoing obligations or commitments. Local affiliate, Gilda’s Club Westchester*, has welcomed and supported individuals and families in its warmly inviting White Plains clubhouse since opening its signature red doors in 2001.

Help for Bereaving Parents

While Gilda’s Club has a full calendar of regular and ongoing classes, support groups and events, there are often special events as well. And, it’s worth noting, many of these are open to the public without any need of Club Membership. In fact, this coming Monday, April 22nd, from 6 – 7:30 p.m., Gilda’s Club Westchester in partnership with the Bereavement Center of Westchester is hosting a Special Bereavement Parenting Workshop. The workshop will be led by clinical psychologist Dr. Justin Yopp, PhD and psychiatrist Dr. Donald Rosenstein, MD, authors of The Group: Seven Widowed Fathers Reimagine Life and co-founders of The Widowed Parent Project.

The Widowed Parent Project began in 2010 with a support group for fathers who had lost their spouses to cancer. From that small original group of widowed men to research that involved more than 400 fathers, to its current commitment to supporting widowed mothers and fathers, the Project is part of the Comprehensive Cancer Support Program at the North Carolina Cancer Hospital and Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The highly anticipated evening event is for “parents who have lost a partner to cancer and struggle with experiencing loss as they continue their role as a sole parent.” Yopp and Rosenstein will share their experiences in supporting both widowed fathers and mothers, and provide additional methods for coping with loss of any kind. Children of attendees are invited to come along, and to participate in a concurrent social program facilitated by a professional from Gilda’s Club Westchester’s Children Teens and Families group. Copies of Yopp and Rosenstein’s book will be available for purchase (with all proceeds going to the Widowed Parent Project) and light refreshments will be served.

New Off-Site Cancer Support Group in Northern Westchester

As busy and wonderful as the White Plains clubhouse and its many free programs are and continue to be, Gilda’s Club Westchester’s Director of Clinical Partnerships, Christine Speck, points out that the club’s proximity to people in need can be a deciding factor in determining membership and usage. “Time management is a big part of cancer treatment”, says Speck. Patients have various doctor visits, treatment visits, and also recovery times when they’re just too tired to go anywhere. There’s a lot to consider. Therefore, Speck and her colleague, Programming Manager Debbie Vincent, LMSW, are very excited to announce a new off-site initiative, the Living with Cancer Support Group, especially intended for people in northern Westchester.

Held at the newly renovated Bedford Playhouse, the Group will meet every second and fourth Wednesday from 10–11:30 a.m. beginning in April. It’s worth noting that the Bedford Playhouse is more than a comfortable, convenient locale; it was here that a preview of the thoughtful and moving Gilda Radner documentary, Love, Gilda was screened to great acclaim. The Group “will encourage discussion of personal experiences as well as provide ongoing exploration of emotional and social concerns, while dispensing wisdom and practical advice.” It is open to anyone in active treatment, including those who are not Gilda’s Club Members. Those interested need only sign up ahead of time.

*For further information, please visit Gilda’s Club Westchester website: www.gildasclubwestchester.org

An Appetite for Generosity

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(L-R): (914) Cares 4th Annual Empty Bowls Committee, Dana Berk, Jodi Falbaum, Lisa Samkoff, Melissa Levine, Jillian Pohly, Jessica Reinmann, Mike Slomsky, Dawn Greenberg, Lena Cavanna, Doug Alpuche and Lauren Stern

(914) Cares Fourth Annual Empty Bowls Event Raises $120,000 to Fight Hunger in Westchester

On the cold Sunday evening before Thanksgiving, a warmth radiated from Crabtree’s Kittle House Restaurant and Inn. The smell of hearty food filled the air. A simple meal of soup, bread and hors d’oeuvres was being prepared in the kitchen. An abstract sculpture stood inside the entrance of this quaint venue. It was made of ceramic bowls and cans of soup, layered in rows that progressively narrowed from bottom to top, forming a tree. The tree symbolized the upcoming holiday season. The bowls were individually and uniquely hand-painted by members of the community. They were all empty; a reminder that many cannot afford to fill their bowls. The guests of the evening were there to support the Empty Bowls Westchester annual fundraiser to help the fight against hunger.

Throughout the restaurant, soup and bread stations were set up alongside additional displays of painted bowls. Signs explaining the work being done to end hunger sat beside more of the painted bowls. The Mount Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry displayed a sign saying, “We fed 41,791 people last year”. The Boys & Girls Club of Northern Westchester showed a sign informing, “We serve over 80,000 nutritious meals each year.” Hillside Food Outreach had a sign that shared, “We have over 300 volunteers that pack & deliver to our clients.”

Celebrities Help the Cause

Set aside from the main event, the Kittle House’s Tap room was lined with tables showcasing larger bowls that had been signed by celebrities who support this important cause. Celebrities who participated by donating signed bowls included Yankees legend Mariano Rivera, Bon Jovi’s Richie Sambora, author and activist Cecile Richards, US golfing great Tom Watson, Bill and Hillary Clinton, author James Patterson, HQ Trivia Host Scott Rogowsky and Pinkalicious children’s author Victoria Kahn. These “Celebrity Bowls” were an important part of the fundraising effort. They were available to bid on in the evening’s highly anticipated silent auction.

Empty Bowls Westchester is a division of (914) Cares–an organization that supports local Westchester based non-profits that focus on basic human needs: food, clothing, shelter, medical care and education. According to the Feeding Westchester (formerly known as the Westchester Food Bank), one in five residents of Westchester is food insecure, which means approximately 200,000 people are hungry or at risk for hunger. Each year, an Empty Bowls Committee is formed to run the local arm of the international grassroots effort to raise money and awareness in the fight to end hunger in our community.

Grant recipients (L-R): Kelly Housman, Mt. Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry; Susan Bretti, Community Center of Northern Westchester; Clare Murray, Community Center of Northern Westchester and Robin Karp, Pleasantville Interfaith Emergency Food Pantry

A Community Wide Effort

Beginning in the spring, (914) Cares Co-Founders Dawn Greenberg and Jessica Reinmann work with volunteers from the community who donate their time to hand paint bowls, one by one. Members from Congregation Sons of Israel Briarcliff, Pace University and Strauss Paper employees along with several Girl Scout troops are among those who helped paint bowls which, this year, totaled over 250. Once painted, A Maze in Pottery in Briarcliff Manor, a generous supporter of this cause, fires all the painted bowls in their kiln.

Local Grant Recipients Utilize Event’s Funds

Local organizations who are on the front lines in the fight against hunger apply to receive grants from the funds raised. This year six grant recipients were selected. These organizations were Bread of Life, The Boys and Girls Club of Northern Westchester, The Community Center of Northern Westchester, Hillside Food Outreach, The Interfaith Emergency Food Pantry of Pleasantville and The Mount Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry.

The recipients of this year’s grants were extremely appreciative for funding they received, but the community members who attended the fundraiser were just as thankful for the work the organizations do. Whether it’s through rescuing food so that it does not go to waste, delivering food to the sick or elderly, or running a food pantry year -round; through the grace of these organizations, the gap between those who are able to give and those who are in need is being bridged. The people who champion this cause maintain that they get more than they give from the work they do.

Ways to Get Involved

Empty Bowls Westchester and (914) Cares are always looking for the help of generous people. Whatever one can give is significant and makes a difference. Reinmann encourages the community to continue to support this cause by hosting a bowl painting party, becoming a sponsor or attending the next Empty Bowls Westchester event. Celebrity–signed bowls are always welcome donations for the silent auction portion of the fundraiser. There are many ways to get involved.

In Reinmann’s experience, people are very generous during the holiday season, but help often declines in January and February. The depth of winter, however, is when the need for help is the greatest. She encourages people to reach out to local food banks to find out what is needed and run a drive to raise those items accordingly.

The Empty Bowls event was a success but there is still much more work to be done. Since its inception, four years ago, Empty Bowls Westchester has raised almost half a million dollars. Greenberg and Reinmann aim to continue to support the growth of the program. They want to help create a community where basic fundamental needs are available to everyone. A place where poverty and hunger is not temporarily mended with a band aid but rather where the cycle of poverty is ended.

When the evening was over, every attendee received a hand-painted bowl to remind them of all the empty bowls in the world that still need to be filled and to inspire them to continue to support ending hunger. The ultimate goal, according to Reinmann, is “the day when (914) Cares is no longer needed, that will be the best day ever.”

For more information on how to support Empty Bowls Westchester, please visit 914cares.org

PHOTO BY SETH BERK

Some Really Super Bowls

Over the past four years, a number of very special bowls have been auctioned during the Empty Bowls silent auction. Artist in Residence and committee member, Melissa Levine, painted most of this year’s bowls that were sent to celebrities who volunteered to sign them to help raise money for this cause. A Maze in Pottery Briarcliff Manor’s Nancy Beard generously assisted by lending her artistic talent to paint some of the celebrity-signed bowls. For this year’s auction, comedian Jim Belushi did his own artwork on the bowl he signed and donated.

The bidding on celebrity bowls starts at $125 and bowls can go for any amount higher.  To date, the bowl that has gotten the highest bid was from last year’s silent auction.  It was a bowl signed by the entire Philadelphia Eagles football team and was won by a bid of $1,700.

Some celebrities, for example Bill and Hillary Clinton, are regular supporters, and have signed a bowl to be auctioned each year.

On occasion, a bowl will be sent to a celebrity for signing and the celebrity will return the bowl with an additional item to be included in the auction. Two years ago, musician James Taylor added a signed guitar to his donation. For this year’s auction, Richie Sambora donated a signed guitar along with his signed bowl.

PHOTO BY Sabra Staudenmaier

 

PHOTO COURTESY OF EMPTY BOWLS
PHOTO BY Sabra Staudenmaier

Local Poet Scott Mason’s New Haiku Book Celebrates the Wonder of the World

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PHOTO COURTESY OF SCOTT MASON

Listening to Scott Mason wax poetic (pun intended!) about haiku, a traditional form of Japanese poetry, it is clear that he has a true passion for the subject having published close to 400 haiku in edited literary journals or anthologies. And that passion has helped him earn more than 150 awards, including more than 20 first place finishes in international competitions– more than any other North American, in the genre. To coincide with National Poetry Month coming in April and the launch of his latest book, The Wonder Code, Inside Press had the opportunity to sit down with this prolific poet and learn more about this art form.

Mason claims writing and also reading haiku (it is the same in both singular and plural form) has changed his outlook on life. Admitting that it sounds grandiose, Mason claims that haiku has made him “more attentive and more appreciative.” The Chappaqua resident though never intended to become a haiku poet. “If you told me twenty years ago that I would be doing this, I would have looked at you like you have three heads,” he chuckles.

As an undergraduate at Dartmouth College, Mason majored in art and did a minor in math and physics. He obtained his MBA at Harvard Business School and worked in advertising at Prudential. Following that he consulted for advertising agencies to help them strategize and win new business opportunities. “My background isn’t what people typically think of when they think about poets.”

Always an avid traveler, Mason and his wife Carla Gambescia (the former owners of the now defunct Via Vanti in the Mount Kisco train station) took a hiking trip to Japan in the early 1990s with a company called Wilderness Travel. The tour guide challenged the group to write their own haiku over dinner one evening in the traditional Japanese format of three lines with, five syllables in the first line, seven syllables in the second and five again in the last line. Mason wrote one but didn’t think much about it at the time.

Fast forward a decade later and Mason found himself wanting to express himself poetically. As he took his first attempts at writing, he noticed that his poems were short and resembled haiku.

He later learned that haiku poems in English do not need to conform to a 5-7-5 structure since English and Japanese word sounds are not comparable in duration. On a whim, he sent some of his poems to Modern Haiku magazine and they accepted one of his haiku for publication.

Since then he has become the co-editor of The Heron’s Nest, an online and print haiku journal with an international readership. Having an analytical mind, Mason sought to figure out why this form of poetry resonated with him so deeply and what characteristics the best haiku have in common. He poured through 9,000 haiku that had been published over the years in The Heron’s Nest and eventually chose his favorites writing each one on index cards. He sorted through them and found to his surprise that the poems wound up naturally being organized into five piles. “Each poem had one common denominator and that is wonder. Now wonder is both a verb and a noun and they operated on me in both ways. These poems brought me to wonder in some ways but also caused me to wonder in a verb sense,” explained Mason.

The five groups also had some imperative that eventually formed the five chapters of The Wonder Code. So for example, think small was an imperative and the haiku in that particular pile all focused on things like small animals or bugs. It struck Mason that this was the “diametric opposite of our culture and our times. Each haiku seemed to offset some aspect of our Western culture that tend to estrange us from wonder. Americans want big cars, big restaurant portions. Bigger is better is our credo but there is so much wonder and beauty in small things.”

Mason is gratified that this book has been so well-received in the haiku community but hopes to expand its readership to a wider audience. Kirkus Reviews magazine noted that is “ a superb haiku collection for readers who thought they didn’t like poetry, richly expressive and very accessible.” The first five chapters feature haiku written by various authors and the last chapter features haiku written by Mason. The book also received a Kirkus Star which signifies a book of exceptional merit.

As we wrap up the interview, Mason reminds us that “haiku is the people’s poetry. It is the opposite of elitist and truly treasures the everyday.” Mason will be giving a presentation on “Looking at Nature the Haiku Way” on March 27 from 7-8:30 pm at Teatown in Ossining–a place where he enjoys hiking and of course has inspired many of his haiku. Tickets are available at teatown.org/events/haiku-way where his book will be available for purchase at the event.

Haikus

By Scott Mason

how deer
materialize
twilight

Venetian canal –
lifting fog reveals
another mask shop

summer moonglow
the crescent
of toe prints on sand